Tsar Ivan the Terrible was known not only for his great reforms, which allowed Russia to take its rightful place among the strongest powers of the time, but also for eccentricities that terrified others no less than mass executions because of their unpredictability. One of these actions of the king was the reign of Simeon Bekbulatovich. His date of birth is unknown. At the same time, there is a we alth of documented, often contradictory, evidence of his so-called reign.
Simeon Bekbulatovich: biography (young years)
Very little is known about the childhood of the man who subsequently occupied the Russian throne, even if only briefly. Sain-Bulat Khan was the son of Bek-Bulat, a direct descendant of Genghis Khan and the Sultan of the Nogai Horde. His grandfather Akhmet was the last ruler of the Golden Horde, who continued to holdpolitical dependence of Moscow princes.
Ivan the Fourth invited Bek-Bulat together with his son to his service. The old prince was devoted to Grozny and proved himself to be a good warrior, so after his death he was kind to Sain-Bulat.
By order of the sovereign, the young prince married a girl from a well-known boyar family - Maria Andreevna Kleopina-Kutuzova. He already stood above the Russian nobility in his position, since he was from the Genghisides family, and marriage with a Russian aristocrat only strengthened his position.
Reigning in Kasimov
According to the then existing practice, Russian rulers often granted the invited Tatar princes whole cities as destinies. Therefore, no one was surprised when, at the end of the 60s, Simeon Bekbulatovich was appointed khan in Kasimov, at the same time he received the title "servant of the sovereigns", while even the most well-born boyars were called only "serfs of Ivan the Terrible".
During his reign in Kasimov, Simeon Bekbulatovich took part in the Livonian War, as well as in campaigns against Paida, Oreshek and Kolyvan. Then, at the insistence of Ivan the Terrible, he was baptized and took the name Simeon. By that time, Bekbulatovich was a widower and remarried to the recently lost husband, Princess Anastasia Cherkasskaya.
Thanks to this marriage, Simeon Bekbulatovich - Tsar Kasimovsky - became related to the royal family, since the blood of Sophia Paleolog flowed in the veins of his second wife.
In marriage, the couple had three sons and three daughters.
Why was there a transfer of power?
Until now, the reason why Ivan the Terrible put such an inconspicuous person as Simeon Bekbulatovich at the head of state remains the subject of discussion by historians.
There are many versions. According to the most common Ivan the Terrible, an omen was made of the imminent death of the ruler of all Russia, therefore, by placing another person on the throne, he hoped to deceive fate. There is also an opinion that he wanted to retreat into the shadows for a while in order to reveal his hidden enemies. Some historians also put forward the hypothesis that in this way the tsar wanted to ward off the discontent of the people, who had difficulty recovering from the horrors that he had to endure during the oprichnina period, “turning the arrows” on the new prince.
On the throne of the Russian state
Be that as it may, in 1575 Ivan the Terrible ordered the crowning of Simeon Bekbulatovich, who received the title of "Grand Duke of All Russia". He himself, along with his family, moved from the Kremlin to Petrovka. At the same time, the country was formally divided, giving Ivan of Moscow, as the “former” ruler of the country decided to call himself from now on, a small lot. There he started his own Duma, which was run by the Godunovs, the Nagys and the Belskys.
In total, the new sovereign reigned for 11 months. During this time, according to the testimony of foreign ambassadors, he took away from the monasteries and churches all the letters granted to her for centuries, and destroyed them. In addition, formally by order of Simeon, but in fact by commandIvan the Terrible, some courtiers were executed, who were brought closer to them after the oprichnina, but did not live up to expectations. Thus, another “cleansing” was carried out in the upper echelon of power.
Simeon Bekbulatovich and his reforms were not unambiguously perceived by contemporaries, but the turmoil that Ivan the Terrible feared did not happen.
Offset
Convinced that the political reshuffling was successful, Grozny expressed "dissatisfaction" with the actions of Simeon and "was forced" to take the scepter again to compensate for the evil, the damage that he inflicted on the church.
At least, the actions of Ivan the Fourth were presented to the people and the nobility in this vein. At the same time, the tsar allowed the destroyed charters to be renewed, but he distributed them in his own name, retaining and adding part of the church lands to the sovereign's treasury. In addition, there were rumors that many church hierarchs had to pay considerable sums in order to return at least part of the property of their cloisters.
As foreign ambassadors reported to their governments, the short-term Great reign of Simeon Bekbulatovich (the date of accession to the throne is unknown, but scientists believe that it happened in October 1576) allowed Ivan the Terrible to painlessly take away a significant part of the property from the church, and also show to all those who are dissatisfied that “an even worse reign is possible.”
Reigning
After being removed from power, Simeon Bekbulatovich (photo below) received an order to leave for Tver, where he was given a new destiny. At the same time, he retained the title of Grand Duke, which Ivan Vasilievich also had. However, the latter at the same time in official documents was also called the king. Having lost the power that already belonged to him only formally, Simeon Bekbulatovich became one of the largest landowners of that time. According to the surviving scribe book of his property, compiled around 1580, in the Tver and Mikulin districts, he had up to 13,500 acres of arable land alone. In addition, he was endowed with special privileges, giving him the right to collect taxes and taxes in his favor, which was not allowed to the rest, even the most senior, service people of the Moscow kingdom.
Further career
From the end of 1577 for 5 years, Simeon Bekbulatovich took an active part in hostilities directed against Poland. However, he failed to achieve results in this field, since he did not have either the courage or the talent of a commander.
After the death of Ivan the Terrible in 1588, Grand Duke Simeon was able to maintain his high position for some time. However, Boris Godunov, who approached the throne, began in every possible way to set up the young Tsar Fyodor the First against the Prince of Tver.
Opala
Becoming king, Godunov ordered the sworn boyars to swear that they would not take action to transfer the throne to Simeon Bekbulatovich or his children. In addition, a reason was soon found to eliminate a dangerous contender for power in the country: a close relative of Simeon Bekbulatovich - I. Mstislavsky - was involved in one of the intrigues against the all-powerful royal brother-in-law, and after he was arrested, the former "ruler of all Russia" fell into disgrace. His estate and dignity were taken away from him, but they were not exiled, allowing him to live in his former appanage capital Kushalin.
Godunov's fears were not unfounded, since some boyars really plotted to enthrone the tsar, who already occupied the throne with the consent of Ivan the Terrible himself. Such well-known political figures of the time as Feodor Nikitich Romanov and Belsky took part in the conspiracy. Their intrigue was frustrated, and Simeon himself, according to some reports, was blinded.
monasticism
Simeon Bekbulatovich, who lost his sight and fell into disgrace, began to seek consolation in the Orthodox faith. He built temples and donated to monasteries. He had to give up these activities for a while during the accession of False Dmitry the First, who first invited him to Moscow and treated him kindly. However, this situation did not last long, and the unfortunate man was sentenced by an impostor to imprisonment in the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery. There was even a document signed by him, instructing the abbot of the monastery to tonsure Simeon Bekbulatovich as a monk and write to him personally.
April 3, 1616, the former king was tonsured under the name of Stephen. From that moment on, Simeon Bekbulatovich, whose biography resembles an adventure novel, lived almost like a prisoner.
His situation worsened even more under Vasily Shuisky, who exiled the monk to Solovki.
Bitter daysSimeon, aka Monk Stefan, graduated in Moscow in 1616 and was buried in the Simonov Monastery.
Now you know who Simeon Bekbulatovich was, whose years of life can only be named presumably (1540s - 1616). The reasons for the sharp turn in his fate, as a result of which he ended up on the Russian throne, are still the subject of discussion by historians and are unlikely to ever be established.
